Severn Trent reported a 4,000 per cent rise in burst pipe alarms on Sunday and into Monday morning and have now announced they will be making payments to the affected households.

At least two schools in Coventry were closed on Monday due to water leaks and hundreds of households in Rugby and across Warwickshire suffered from problems with their supplies on Sunday night.

Severn Trent said they had been working around the clock and brought in additional teams to help fix leaks.

Tankers were used to make sure vital services such as hospitals could keep running and some areas had bottled water delivered in by the water company.

They have apologised for the disruption and said the situation is now “much improved”.

Outside taps are prone to freezing and bursting

Who will get compensation?

Severn Trent will be paying compensation to any customers who were without water for more than 12 continuous hours, or for more than 15 hours of intermittent supply.

How much will you get?

Households will get a payment of £30, which is roughly the same as having a month free on the average combined water and waste bill.

How do you claim?

You don’t need to do anything. Domestic customers who are eligible for compensation will have the payment deducted from their bill and will be contacted in the coming weeks.

Frozen pipe (Image: Getty)

What about businesses?

Severn Trent say they are also working with any business customers and their retailers who were affected by the problems.

What did Severn Trent say?

Sarah Bentley, Chief Customer Officer at Severn Trent, said: “We’re incredibly sorry for the disruption which was caused by a huge number of bursts that put intense pressure on our water network.

“Our teams have faced an unprecedented number of leaks since the cold weather began. While we had extra teams in place working round the clock, and have hundreds of people out and about fixing bursts, we know that some customers were without water, and I really can’t apologise enough for that.

“While some customers are seeing water coming and going, the situation is much improved so we wanted to let people know about compensation.

“So, we’ll be compensating the people and families who were without water for 12 continuous hours or for more than 15 hours of intermittent supply with a deduction from their bill, and, once again, we’re just so sorry for the inconvenience this week.”